Ministry of Health denies infection outbreak among children

Reports claiming that an infection with flu-like symptoms, including diarrhea and vomiting, is spreading among children have circulated on social media. The Ministry of Health has issued an official statement regarding the situation.

According to the ministry, the flu season usually begins in late August or September, but this year it started slightly later, in the last ten days of October. Therefore, contrary to what is being claimed online, there is nothing unusual about the current situation.

’’Sometimes respiratory symptoms appear as coughing, sneezing, nasal irritation, and fever, while in some patients, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract are observed. This means the course of such illnesses is not always the same and depends on the viral strains involved,’’ the statement reads.

According to the ministry, interpreting the rise in seasonal respiratory illnesses as a new mutation of the coronavirus is entirely unfounded. It emphasized that COVID-19 has now evolved into a common respiratory infection, and the current coronavirus situation in Uzbekistan remains stable. The ministry added that medical institutions across the country are adequately equipped with sufficient hospital beds and medicine supplies to treat acute respiratory viral infections. Epidemiological monitoring is being conducted regularly.

Parents are also advised to promptly take their children to a family doctor if any symptoms of illness appear.

Earlier, it was reported that children attending preschools in the Piskent, Buka, Okkorgon, and Kuyi Chirchik districts of the Tashkent region suffered from mass poisoning. Following the incident, criminal proceedings were initiated under Article 257-1, part 1 of the Criminal Code (violation of sanitary legislation or anti-epidemic rules) against several officials of private outsourcing service providers. It was noted that the children’s health problems might have been caused by low-quality dairy products. The 3.2% kefir supplied to the preschools was found to have been produced at a workshop located in the Okkorgon district.